Dermot Crowe: It’s high time for GAA referees to have TV replays when making crucial decisions
James Owens admits he judged Conor Cooney incident wrong and supports call for technology
Referee James Owens shows the yellow card to Galway's Conor Cooney. Photo: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
James Owens was standing on the 45m line when Conor Cooney went careering into Mike Casey just inside the ‘D’ at the Gaelic Grounds last weekend. While Casey was being attended to by medical personnel, the referee issued Cooney with a yellow card. Casey had to leave the action badly shaken and possibly concussed, having played for less than 10 minutes.
In a weekend of eight red cards over three hurling games there was no more egregious example of the punishment not fitting the crime. Cooney later saw red when involved in another incident but the failure to send him off the first time was an obvious error on the part of the match officials. It wasn’t until they were all back in the dressing room afterwards that the penny dropped.
